Azerbaijan, Baku, 23 February / Trend corr I. Khalilova / As a result of the 4th quarter of 2007, the Azerbaijani Tax Ministry received AZN 550mln in advance payments of profit tax from the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC - operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields) and its partners, Sahir Mammadkhanov, the head of the Department for Service to Taxpayers with Special Tax Regime at the Tax Ministry, said on 23 February.
The payments exceeded the estimates of AZN 530mln. The final assignments will be paid off by 25 April.
It was expected to receive AZN 1.5bln, taking the oil price as $50 per barrel, from AIOC in 2007, but the sum has already exceeded AZN 2.5bln (given advance payments). According to Mammadkhanov, the cause for this was a twice-fold rise in the price for oil.
The profit tax assignments of AIOC are expected to comprise AZN 1.38bln in 2008. The forecast dropped due to the change in profit distribution between the Azerbaijani Government and foreign contractors in 2008 from 30/70% to 55/45%.
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